


Burnt Offering

by NeurotropicAgentX



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Candles, Fire play, Other, Rare Pair, Reciprocity, Sadomasochism, Wax Play, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 16:13:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/pseuds/NeurotropicAgentX
Summary: ‘I’d still like to find a way to reciprocate more directly,’ Drake said.‘Unnecessary. I don’t have the physiology for sex. I’m using yours. Would you like to know what arousal tastes like in your bloodstream?’Drake had to close his eyes for a moment. He absolutely did, but he wasn’t going to let himself get distracted. This was a problem to be solved like any other, and his mind was geared toward finding solutions.





	Burnt Offering

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my editor for all her assistance.

Drake stared at the ceiling and panted. His extremities were beginning to tingle now that the numbness was fading, but it would be a while before he’d be able to stand again of his own volition. These sessions with Riot were still rather new, but it was a fast learner and the access it had to Drake’s physiological and neurochemical processes meant that it could do things to their body far in excess of what Drake could manage on his own.

Riot was still manifesting, which was unusual for it. Its face hovered beside Drake’s. Its eyes weren’t directed at him, but Drake suspected that sight wasn’t a particularly important sense for symbiotes. **‘You liked it,’** Riot said. It wasn’t a question, but Drake could feel a muted confusion through their link. Riot’s curiosity felt very much like his own. 

Drake huffed a laugh. ‘Yes. Rather obviously.’ 

The considering noise Riot made wasn’t as harsh as its usual growl. Drake could feel its hesitation, so he remained silent, giving Riot space to think. Then in a movement too fast for Drake’s eyes, Riot struck, its teeth closing around Drake’s throat and shoulder.

Drake arched off the bed with a sharp cry. If he hadn’t just come, he’d have been hard. Riot’s teeth were pressed gently against his flesh, holding without piercing and it had done that only moments ago when he’d been right on the edge. The control it must take, moving at those speeds, to bite without tearing. For a drunken, giddy moment, Drake wished Riot would press just a little harder, draw blood…

Drake’s fingers were buried in the slick mass of Riot’s flesh to hold it close. When Riot’s tongue slid against his skin he shuddered hard. After a moment it let go and Drake reluctantly released his own hold as it drew back again. Drake was panting and his heart was thudding in his chest. He forced himself to take deep, slow breaths as he fought for composure.

 **‘You are afraid and… not afraid.’** The jagged undertones in Riot’s voice were particularly pronounced when it spoke. **‘The chemical balance is different, altered by arousal and endorphins.’**

Riot’s people were predators by nature, but it seemed very self-conscious of the fact. Drake had only felt echoes of its hunger through their link, and he suspected it tried to keep the brunt of the sensation away from him. Even when they fed on live animals. That Riot trusted Drake enough to demonstrate its power and danger like this was touching. ‘The fear is from my hindbrain, instinctual and automatic. It’s tempered by the fact that I don’t actually fear you. We share the same goals and want the same thing for both our species.’

Riot was silent for long moment. Drake couldn’t tell what it was feeling even through the link. When Riot spoke again its voice was barely audible. **‘Maybe you should fear me, human.’**

Drake smiled and reached out to caress one of Riot’s tendrils overlaying his chest. ‘Having a predator’s instincts doesn’t automatically make you something to be feared. Humans have plenty of less than optimal instincts too. As sapient beings we can all rise above the stupid, chaotic programming of our evolutionary past. Or rather, perhaps we can together.’ 

Drake couldn’t parse the rumbling noise that Riot uttered in response. He liked to think it was agreeing with him.

A comfortable silence stretched between them and Drake kept absently stroking Riot’s flesh. It was a rare and pleasant thing to have Riot manifest for this long. ‘I’d still like to find a way to reciprocate more directly,’ Drake said.

Riot shifted lazily across his torso and Drake could feel it extending tendrils beneath his skin and along his nerves. Riot’s fine control was excellent and it could move stealthily and unfelt through Drake’s body or it could make each tiny shift of its flesh light up a dozen nerves.

**‘Unnecessary. I don’t have the physiology for sex. I’m using yours. Would you like to know what arousal tastes like in your bloodstream?’**

Drake had to close his eyes for a moment. He absolutely did, but he wasn’t going to let himself get distracted. This was a problem to be solved like any other, and his mind was geared toward finding solutions. ‘You may not have genitals or even quite the same reward centres that I do, but you like more than just the physical stimulation of our body.’ Riot’s face tilted, a surprisingly human movement, and the constant shifting of its face and tendrils stilled for a moment. Drake pressed his advantage. ‘You like what I say to you during sex.’

Riot’s silence held for another long beat. **‘Yes,’** it admitted.

‘On the surface, mere words should have nothing to do with sex. And yet it feels good. When I tell you out loud what it’s like hosting a being as sleek and powerful as you,’ he said slowly, attentive for Riot’s response.

 **‘Yes.’** There was a subtle growl beneath Riot’s voice now and Drake felt a surge of triumph.

‘For most humans there’s a mental component to sex as well as a physical one. A lot of that can come from subverting instincts. Hijacking emotions to enhance the experience.’

 **‘The fear that is not fear,’** Riot deduced. **‘The way you respond when I put my teeth against your throat.’** Riot’s tongue traced the edge of its teeth as it spoke.

Drake’s pulse kicked up. ‘Yes, precisely,’ he said a little hoarsely. 

**‘You have an idea. I can feel it.’**

‘Fire,’ Drake said simply. It was gratifying to see the way a single word could make Riot narrow its eyes and lash its tendrils. 

**‘What,’** it growled, the tone more a threat than a question.

Drake smiled thinly. ‘You obviously have a strong response to the idea. Humans are vulnerable to fire as well and that hasn’t stopped us from using that vulnerability to… hijack an emotional response. I’m proposing a very small, very controlled candle flame. It doesn’t even need to be about the fire. You might find contact with hot wax to be sufficiently… stimulating.’

There was a strange sensation in Drake’s head that he’d come to associate with Riot digging through his memories. Whether it was looking for information on candles or merely trying to understand humanity’s tendency toward bizarre risk-taking behaviour, Drake didn’t know.

 **‘And you think this will feel good?’** Riot finally asked.

‘I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. I want to share some of what you make me feel directly and I don’t think you’d ever find human teeth a threat,’ he added lightly. One of Riot’s tendrils was wound around Drake’s neck and he pulled it gently toward his lips. Riot stilled when Drake licked at the tendril before biting down. There was barely any give beneath his blunt, human teeth.

There was a low rumble from Riot that meant it was amused. **‘No. You are not a threat. We will try your idea.’**

///

There was almost something ritualistic about this, Drake thought with a wry hint of self-deprecation. It had been a difficult day for the both of them, with unexpected delays that had caused Riot to snarl in frustration behind Drake’s eyes. Riot’s emotions were strong enough that it couldn’t hold them back from its half of the link and all afternoon Drake had felt the odd impulse to tear into his staff. Literally. With his teeth. 

Of course neither of them would act on such an impulse, Drake was sure. But he was particularly pleased to be able to offer Riot a distraction. He laid an old blanket over the covers on his bed and placed the matches, candle holders and box of candles he’d acquired on the cleared bedside table. The fire blanket he’d placed by the side of the bed was probably overkill, but with Riot’s vulnerability in mind, Drake was more than willing to take every precaution.

Then, moving just as carefully and methodically, Drake loosened his tie and started stripping down. He hung up or folded the components of his suit one by one. Riot was quiet, though it moved restlessly beneath Drake’s skin, likely experiencing the same tense anticipation directly from Drake’s bloodstream. Drake let out a long slow breath when he was fully naked and he sat cross-legged on the middle of the old blanket. ‘Riot?’ he asked, voice even and smooth despite the flutter in the pit of his stomach.

For a moment nothing happened, then Riot seeped through Drake’s skin, a few tendrils manifesting from his chest and abdomen. It wasn’t bothering to form any structures that were remotely humanoid and Drake found himself entranced, staring at the graceful silvery projections that seemed to be a part of his own body. He sometimes forgot how beautiful Riot was. Alien and other, but already as much a part of Drake as his own limbs. 

Drake blinked, reminding himself of the goal. He picked up one of the candles and offered it to Riot. ‘Here, this is what we’ll be using.’

One of Riot’s tendrils curled around the candle and took it from Drake’s hand. **Interesting.** The voice reverberated inside Drake’s head. Riot’s tendril split and formed a thin blade. It scraped along the edge of the candle, gathering a curl of the wax. The blade reformed into a pliable coil and Riot absorbed the wax through its flesh. **Not bad.**

‘It’s tallow. Well, as near to pure animal tallow as I could get.’ 

**Dead. Organic. Triglycerides,** Riot mused. **Rendered,** it added after a heartbeat, almost certainly drawing the last word from Drake’s mind.

‘I tried to find a substance you wouldn’t find objectionable. In case you wanted to absorb any of it during or after.’

Riot’s flesh oozed upward to curl around the wick. **And this is where you put the fire.** There was something in Riot’s tone that told Drake that the nervous tension in their body wasn’t entirely from him.

‘Yes. If you’ll indulge me.’

Riot was silent for a long while and held the candle loosely in its coils. **Yes,** it finally said and proffered the candle back to Drake.

A smile tugged at the corner of Drake’s mouth as he set the candle in the holder and palmed the box of matches. ‘You might want to stay inside me initially. I’ll be testing this against my own skin first and then you can make a decision once you know what to expect.’

Riot didn’t reply, but melted back beneath Drake’s skin. Drake struck a match, the sound of it flaring to life loud in the silent room. Too silent. Drake had been holding his breath without realising it, so he let it out in a slow exhale. The wick caught after a couple of seconds and Drake blew out the match. The flame glowed steady and warm in the dimly lit bedroom. Drake allowed himself a moment to appreciate the draw of fire while the tallow started to melt. Fire was crucial to human development, one of the first things that gave his species an edge over other animals. He wondered how universal that made the appeal of a naked flame to humans.

 **It’s not just the fear of fire itself,** Riot said softly.

Drake started. He hadn’t realised that Riot was focused just as intently on the flame. ‘How so?’

**A flame like that means a toxic oxygen-rich atmosphere. Dangerously oxidising. There are few things more…**

‘Threatening?’ Drake suggested.

**Alien.**

Drake gave a faint smile, gratified that Riot would share its perspective. He lit a second candle to ensure a stead supply of melted wax before picking up the first one. Riot was still beneath his skin, but pressing close along Drake’s nerves, waiting. The obvious physics of distance of pouring decreasing the heat of the wax on contact danced through Drake’s mind, but other than that he had no idea what to expect. His taste for experimentation certainly extended to the bedroom, but he hadn't indulged for a long time. It was easier to keep things conventional in his personal life, rather than having to worry about scaring off partners with non-disclosure agreements and what the tabloids might get hold of despite reasonable precautions. He hadn’t left so much as a hickey on a partner for decades, let alone received any marks himself.

Drake took a slow breath and tilted the candle. A steady stream of wax fell across the skin of his thigh. Breath hissed between Drake’s teeth. The pain was immediate and energising. Riot’s presence had made Drake more aware of his body, of his nerves, and he could have sworn he felt the rapid-fire signals racing toward his brain. Internally Riot rippled oddly, spreading itself out over a broader surface. 

Drake’s hand was steady as he set the candle aside. The pain dulled to a warm throb, almost pleasant. He’d picked a good distance for pouring. It didn’t feel like there was any damage to his skin. He scraped a nail over the hardening wax on his thigh. ‘Riot, would you mind getting rid of this for me?’ he asked. 

Riot silently manifested, its flesh beading like drops of some dark otherworldly mercury across the surface of Drake’s thigh before running together and engulfing the patch of cooled wax. Drake didn’t quite feel Riot absorbing the tallow. It was vastly superior to trying to pull it off himself and accidently losing hairs in the process. Riot remained pooled across Drake’s leg and more of its substance manifested as he watched. 

‘So, would you like to try it?’ Drake asked as casually as he could. It was pointless keeping his tone light when he was sure Riot could read his hungry anticipation, but hiding his intensity was second nature these days. 

**Yes.**

Drake smiled and picked up the fresher candle. ‘You can tell me to stop at anytime, of course. Or you could take the more direct approach if you wanted to be quicker.’ 

Riot shifted across Drake’s lap, tendrils of it coiling around his legs and waist. It seldom took full control over their body. Perhaps in the same self-conscious way it held back from more predatory behaviour, like holding off feeding until its hunger started to seep through the link. One day Drake would find the right words to reassure it. 

**I wouldn’t have to make you. You would stop as fast as your reflexes permitted.** There was a hint of satisfaction in Riot’s tone.

‘Yes, of course.’ Drake found his smile deepening, pleased to have Riot’s trust. ‘Here we go,’ he warned a moment later and slowly tipped the candle. He let a thin stream of tallow fall against Riot’s surface and then stopped.

Riot’s coils tightened wherever it was anchoring itself to Drake and the whole of its surface rippled like waves across the surface of a lake. Feedback through the link hit Drake, more powerfully than he’d ever felt it before. There was definitely pain and all the alertness that came with that, but underlying it was another feeling Drake was intimately familiar with. A thread of pleasure twisted around the pain as endorphin analogues in Riot’s system activated to tip the balance back closer to baseline. ‘Good?’ Drake asked.

Riot’s answer was a jagged roar in Drake’s head. It was clearly beyond words right now. Drake waited, gently stroking his free hand over Riot’s surface. His hand stuck slightly in a way that meant Riot was deliberately holding him close. More of Riot manifested until its flesh covered Drake’s lap completely and spilled over onto the blanket. It was spread thinly, presenting a wider surface. **Again.** Drake felt the meaning more clearly than he heard an actual word. He moved his free hand out of the way, but kept it pressed against Riot, near his hip. With his other hand he tipped the candle again, letting wax fall in a diagonal line across Riot’s surface.

Riot undulated, its flesh spiking into flashes of weapons and teeth that disappeared as quickly as they formed. Wherever it overlaid Drake’s skin, it adhered, half melting into him. The sounds it made were loud and grating enough that Drake had to remind himself that he was the only one that could hear them. Through it all a wave of sensation struck at Drake from Riot’s half of the link. It was breathtaking, everything Drake had wanted to give Riot.

The next demand for more was a wordless surge of pure want slamming through the link. Drake’s hand was moving again before he’d even fully interpreted the message. He dipped the candle closer, the stream of wax falling hotter against Riot’s quivering mass. Riot snarled in pain and deep satisfaction and blades erupted from the edges of its tendrils and sank into Drake’s thighs.

Drake cried out as the sensation ripped through him. His nerves were on fire. The intensity of it was beyond pain, too much to even process. Riot shrieked and immediately withdrew its blades from Drake’s flesh. It frantically sealed the wounds, weaving human tissue and skin together in a way that made Drake itch. 

**Accident. Debacle. Loss of control. Regret.** Riot’s words ran into each other, only comprehensible through the link. Drake’s pulse was pounding feverishly through his body, but he didn’t have any regrets, didn’t mind what Riot had done to him in the throes of passion. It had almost felt _good_ for a moment there. The pain was just one more sensation lighting up his nerves and feeding into his reward centres. 

But Riot was full of self-recrimination and was probably feeling worse about being a predator, being _dangerous_ , than ever before. Drake couldn’t think straight, barely had any words for reassurance. In situations like this, he instinctively fell back on extreme measures. Leaving himself no room for doubt, Drake let go of Riot and held his free hand directly over the candle flame.

Pain licked at his palm and he suddenly had Riot’s full laser-focused attention. The fire burned but as keyed up as he was, even that felt good. A low noise tore from Drake’s throat. There was a pull through his arm, as if Riot was about to wrench his hand away from the fire, but the feeling passed after a heartbeat. So Drake held still, utterly implacable. He wanted this and he wanted to show Riot that a little pain was nothing to be concerned about. 

Having made his point, Drake let his hand fall away and he blew out the candle. The room felt even dimmer with only one remaining flame. Drake turned his palm over. He traced the intriguing burn with the tip of his index finger. 

**Why did you do that?** Riot demanded, its voice a harsh grate.

‘Because I wouldn’t have been able to do that before. I couldn’t very well go around shaking hands with a livid burn in the middle of my palm. But I don’t have to worry about consequences now, do I?’ He let his hand drop so he could stroke the back of his knuckles against Riot’s surface. ‘Heal it for me?’ The burn was already starting to throb with a dull, insistent pain. What had been thrilling in the moment was now an unpleasant irritation. 

There was something grudging in the way Riot flicked tendrils across Drake’s palm and rebuilt the skin beneath the burn. **A host burning up is catastrophic. It’s hard to perform repairs under those conditions. Fire could kill us both.**

‘And yet you didn’t force my hand away. I could tell you were about to, but you stopped. Why?’ Drake was nearly certain he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Riot say it. He needed proof that he’d managed to affect the symbiote even half as much as it affected him.

**Felt good. Pain that is not quite pain, like the fear that is not quite fear. Like the candle wax.**

‘Yes. Good. I don’t mind if you occasionally lose control, not when you’re capable of fixing any damage.’

The pieces of Riot that were anchored beneath Drake’s skin extended, sliding through his body and coiling around his nerves and muscles. **There is very little I could do to you that I couldn’t fix afterwards,** Riot said, its voice a low purr. The tone made the words a threat, a promise. 

Drake shivered. ‘You and I have only scratched the surface of what we’re capable of together.’

 **Yes. Together.** It paused for a moment before extending a single tendril. Drake watched it wrap itself around the candle holder on the bedside table and draw it closer. Riot’s was dextrous enough that it didn’t spill a single drop of wax. **More?** it asked.

Drake took the proffered candle with a smile. He didn’t think he was imagining the hopefulness in Riot’s voice. ‘It would be my pleasure.’


End file.
